Being a Prog slog and a Meg trek

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The title of this post comes from a great Bolland Supercover, a welcome change after a few lacklustre weeks. The anatomical close-up of a frog and an astronaut’s face shows the kind of detail that Bolland will become famous for by the end of the next decade, especially on his covers for US comics.

Another week, another supercover, another art style I don’t recognise. Not a fantastic picture, I’m afraid – can’t help feeling that Belardinelli would have made a better job of it (you can tell I like his artwork, can’t you?) I’m detecting two types of Supercover – those by Brian Bolland and Kevin O’Neill, which are an excuse to print fantastic artwork with a story tacked on, and fill-in weeks by other, less distinctive artists, where the mediocre stories are mere space-fillers.

Can’t say I can identify the artist who provided this Supercover. Some parts are reminiscent of Belardinelli, but it’s impossible to tell past the heavy colouring. Barney comes to the rescue! The picture of a couple of meteors about to hit a Mega-City was drawn by Lopez – is this the fate that awaits MC1, or is it a different Mega-City?

Involved with the prog since the beginning, Kev O’Neill is much more visible in this prog – getting both a cover and a three-episode story (apparently written and drawn by the art droid). A giant alien dominates the cover, with details on its spacesuit which would be at home on the casing of one of O’Neill’s meks. There is no official credit, but O’Neill sneaks his surname in at the bottom.

Prog 23 is here, and sees Brian Bolland back with one of his best covers to date. Brian gets his full name on the cover – I wasn’t paying attention in previous weeks so this might be a first. Only a matter of time before all art droids get proper credit boxes!

The cover pictures a mutant apparently hiding from an alien spaceship in Hammersmith tube station. No idea what this is about, but a quick flick shows I’ll have to wait to find out. The artwork isn’t up to much, but I like the way the London Underground roundel gets used in the ‘O’ of ‘metro’ (probably courtesy of Jan Shepheard or Kevin O’Neill).

Apparently this cover was provided by Trevor Goring, who would later be responsible for some fantastic, atmospheric Future Shocks, and Kevin O’Neill, whose work on Nemesis the Warlock Book III was largely responsible for my continuing with 2000AD and reading comics past childhood. It’s pretty disappointing that this work together is so uninspiring…